High Court ruling paves way to end of indefinite immigration for asylum seekers with nowhere to go

The High Court has ruled that a Rohingya man from Myanmar was unlawfully detained in an immigration detention center, paving the way for an end to the indefinite detention of other asylum seekers who have no immediate alternative country to which to go.

According to a previous High Court ruling, driven by another man, Ali Ahmed Al-Kateb, it was legal for the government to detain people indefinitely, provided they were deported as soon as reasonably possible.

But for many of those waiting to be deported, that time was not specified.

Today, following a hearing into the Rohingya man’s detention, the High Court overturned its earlier decision and ruled that his detention was unlawful.

The man was in immigration detention after serving a prison sentence for child sex offences.

During the case, his lawyers told the court that no other country could accept him, including members of the Five Eyes allies – the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States.

But late in the day, government lawyers told the court they did not think the U.S. option was out of the question.

The court was told of a minister’s involvement and government staff were told “nothing should be left to chance”.

Also in its submissions today, the government told the High Court that 92 people were in a similar situation to the man in today’s case.

The court heard that most of them could not be sent home for fear of persecution and that nine of them were stateless.

Five of the 92 were in an “intractable” position and could not be returned due to factors beyond anyone’s control, including the Rohingya man.

The court heard that many of them had been detained on moral grounds, and a few on national security grounds.

The Commonwealth Attorney General warned the court that if the Al-Kateb decision was overturned, these people would have to be released and “the consequence would be indefensible claims for damages”.

But High Court judges appeared concerned about the lack of time limits for people in indefinite detention.

This remark paved the way for today’s decision.

Government lawyers had warned the court that the man might be accepted into the United States before a decision was made.

But the court anticipated this situation, retiring for a few minutes before returning to render its decision.

The court will provide its reasons later.